Pneumatic-conveyer system.



PATENTED MAR. 7.1905.

A. H. MORTON.

PNEUMATIC GONVEYER SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 13, 1904.

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WITNESSES:

PATENTED MAR. 7, 1905.

A. H. MORTON. PNEUMATIC OON VEYER SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 13, 1904.

JNVENTOR.

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PATENT FFICE.

PNEUMATIO-CONVEYER SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 784,270, dated March '7, 1905. Application filed July 13, 1904. Serial No. 216,340.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, ALBERT H. MORTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lowell, in the county of Middlesexand State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvflnents in Pneumatic-Conveyer Systems; andI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear-,and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to improvements in pneumatic-conveyor systems.

In cotton-mills it is customary to store the supply of baled cotton in a building separate from the building in which the preliminary operation of opening is performed and to convey the cotton from the storehouse to the picker-room through a pneumatic tube by means of a draft of air forced through the tube by suitable blowers or exhausters. The cotton as taken from the bale is put into feeders which disintegrate or tear it apart more or less and deliver it uniformly to the pneumatic tube. At the delivery end of the conveyor the cotton is separated from the air by a condenser. The feeders commonly used are of a well-known type, and where a considerable quantity of cotton is handled it is necessary to use several feeders all delivering cotton simultaneously to the tube. It has been customary heretofore to arrange the feeders in a row and to carry the conveyortube along the row at the rear of the feeders. Each feeder delivers its cotton into a hopper which discharges through a lateral aperture in the eonveyer-tube. In such an arrangement each aperture affords a passage for the ingress of air as well as cotton, and each aperture consequently diminishes the suction and the flow of air at the succeeding apertures. It has been found in practice that not more than three feeders can be successfully used in such an arrangement, owing to the fact that the diminished current of air at the last feeders, where more than three are used, is not sufficient to entrain the cotton delivered by such feeders unless special means are provided for transferring the cotton within the tube. Moreover, it is necessary, even when three feeders are used,to use an excessive aircurrent in order to entrain effectively the cotton from the last feeder, and this necessitates large blowers and a wasteful expediture of power, while the limitation of the number of feeders limits the eliiciency of the tube, which otherwise could convey a much larger quantity of cotton.

It is the object of the present invention to produce a conveying system in which any desired number of feeders may be made to deliver cotton to a single pneumatic tube and in which the waste of power above pointed out is avoided, while the efiiciency of the tube is limited only by its capacity, and to this end the invention contemplates the use, with a pneumatic tubeand a condenser, of a gang of feeders and means for collecting the cotton from the several feeders and delivering it all at one point into the pneumatic tube. The means most suitable for this purpose is an endless moving apron onto which the feeders discharge the cotton and which in turn discharges into a hopper attached to the end of the pneumatic tube; but the invention in its broader aspect is not limited to the use of an apron, since it contemplates any means for collecting the cotton from the several feeders, the gist of the invention residing in the arrangement by which the cotton is delivered to thetube at a single point instead of at several openings among which the indraft of air is divided.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a conveyer system embodying the present invention, and Fig. 2. is a sectional elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan, and Fig. i a rear elevation, of the feeders, the apron, and the receiving end of the pneumatic tube.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the storehouse l and the picker-room 2 are connected by a pneumatic tube 3. The blower & forces a current of air through the tube. The feeders 5 are arranged in a row and discharge upon a moving endless apron 6 at the rear of the feeders. The apron discharges the cotton into a hopper 7 whence it passes through the blower 4 and thence into and through the pneumatic tube. The cotton is discharged from the tube into the condensin combination. an open-ended pneumatic conveyer-tube, a gang of feeders for disintegrating the bale-cotton, collecting means for collecting the cotton from the feeders and discharging it into the open end of the conveyertube, and a condenser at the delivery end of the tube, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

ALBERT H. MORTON.

WVitnesses:

HORACE VAN EV REN, F. A. XVILooX. 

